Investigation of bioactive nanofiber-based scaffolds for cultivated
meat.
Abstract
Synthetic polymers scaffolds often need to be coated with extracellular
matrix (ECM) proteins to improve cell adhesion. For cultivated meat
applications, coating should be avoided since it is necessary to
eliminate expensive and animal-derived components. As cellulose acetate
nanofibers is a low-cost cellulose-derived material, that induces cell
adhesion and proliferation, we investigated its use associated with a
bioactive annatto extract, a food-dye and potential meat preservative,
as scaffolds for cultivated meat. Here, the bioactive electrospun
nanofibers were evaluated through morphological, mechanical and
biological characterizations. The results revealed that the scaffolds
were porous with no specific alignment and average fiber diameter of
420±212 nm. Molecular analyzes revealed that in contrast to cellulose
acetate scaffold, annatto-loaded cellulose acetate scaffold favor a
proliferative state of C2C12 mouse skeletal myoblasts. SEM microscopy
images suggests that the nanofiber substrates can sustain long-term
culture of the cells, up to 28 days. These results suggest that the
combination of cellulose acetate fibers loaded with annatto extract may
be an interesting economical alternative for support long-term muscle
cells culture with potential application as a scaffold for cultivated
meat and muscle tissue engineering.